This file photo provided by SsangYong Motor shows the Torres SUV.
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — SsangYong Motor Co. said Wednesday it shifted to an operating profit in the fourth quarter from a year earlier despite the global chip shortage and the extended COVID-19 pandemic.
SsangYong swung to an operating profit of 4.1 billion won (US$3.3 million) in the three months ended in December, shifting from an operating loss of 21.3 billion won a year ago, the company said in a statement.
It is the first time for SsangYong to report a quarterly operating profit in 24 quarters after posting an operating income of 10.1 billion won in the fourth quarter of 2016.
“Robust sales of the Torres SUV in the domestic and overseas market helped buoy the quarterly results,” a company spokesman said.
SsangYong’s lineup consists of the Torres, Tivoli, Korando, Rexton and Rexton Sports SUVs.
Sales jumped 58 percent to 1.034 trillion won in the December quarter from 655 billion won in sales a year earlier, the company said.
For the whole of 2022, its operating losses narrowed to 117.5 billion won from 260.7 billion won the previous year. Sales climbed 42 percent to 3.424 trillion won from 2.417 trillion won over the cited period.
SsangYong sold 113,960 vehicles in the global market last year, up 35 percent from 84,496 units the previous year.
The Seoul Bankruptcy Court approved SsangYong’s debt payment plans in August after the court picked a local consortium led by chemical-to-steel firm KG Group as the final bidder to acquire the debt-laden company in June.
In October, SsangYong graduated from the court-led debt rescheduling program 1 1/2 years after it was placed under a court receivership amid the pandemic.
(Yonhap)
